Proton : my answer to Mahathir's blog post

This is my comment to a post by Mahathir in his blog about protectionism of Proton titled Protectionism...(he tried to defence the automotive policy set by him - high tax on imported cars and high price with low quality for proton cars).

In the 80s (BP - before proton) , my father bought a toyota corolla for a RM10k and sold it 10 years later for RM12k... when he bought the car... he made a 3 years loan... and at that time the maximum was 5 years loan to purchase the car.... now..???? The minimum is 7 years loan for an affordable repayment.. and most are on 9 years loan....????

What does a 9 years loan means???? the car will be a 9 years old car and it's a old car already... and people had to buy a new one to replace it (especially for a proton)... which leads us people to be all the time under loan servicing....

During my father's time - before proton... after 3 years, they already finished their payment for the car loan and the car is still in a very good condition...

Now... To maximized the usability of their car, to service them at least for 10 years, they bought imported cars which is more quality than proton...
This is the reason why Proton market share is reduced to 35% now....

So what Proton should do???
1. Make more quality cars so that we don't have to buy Japanese cars to last for 10 years at least... Proton should start with improving the power window first.... Be stright with their suppliers which now supply Proton with sub standard components...
2. reduce the Proton price at least to the price that we sell in other countries... (which is much cheaper than in Malaysia)... if we can sell it with that price oversea.. why can't we sell it at the same price in our own country..??? if not we still has 'bermentaliti dijajah' in our minds... we should look after our own people first...! when Proton is cheaper... and with high quality... people will buy proton volunteraly... no need for high imported car tax anymore... with cheaper protons, means less years to service the car loans.. and more money can be save for other things... or to buy another proton....